Panel Orders Audit of Equestrian Center in Dispute Over Rent : Finances: Officials want proof that a payment reduction is justified. They also seek a ruling on the legality of a chef school proposed on the site.

Members of a Los Angeles City Council committee Monday ordered an audit of the books of the concessionaire operating the Los Angeles Equestrian Center to determine whether a proposed reduction in rent worth hundreds of thousands of dollars is warranted.

In addition, members of the Arts, Health and Humanities Committee also asked for an investigation of the legality and the finances of a planned culinary school for chefs at the center. Members of the committee said they were concerned that if the new contract terms negotiated by the operator with the city Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners were approved, the city would not get an adequate share of the revenues generated by the proposed for-profit school or by a gourmet restaurant that would be run by the school’s students.

The elite school, which was set to open in September and is now likely to be delayed, had been criticized by officials who said the center’s concessionaire, LAEC Inc., kept the plan secret from parks officials.

In addition, officials said, the school is not allowed under the present contract.

Councilman Joel Wachs, committee chairman, ordered the parks board to authorize the audit and to determine whether establishment of such a school would be legal under the new contract.

During a special committee meeting, Wachs and Councilwoman Rita Walters said they were still uncomfortable with an amended contract that would allow the concessionaire to pay the city a flat rental fee of $350,000 over the next five years instead of 5.5% of gross receipts, as required under the present agreement.

Last year, LAEC paid the city $226,000 in rent. If the new contract terms were approved, the operator would pay the city $50,000 for the 1991-92 fiscal year and the amount would go up in subsequent years.

LAEC officials have said that without the rent break, they will be forced to drastically reduce the center’s operations. But Wachs and Walters said Monday that they would need to see detailed information on the center’s finances since LAEC took over its operation in May, 1990, before granting more lenient terms.

“One way to tell how well someone will do is to see how well someone has done,” Wachs said.

J. Stanley Sanders, president of the parks board, said LAEC has been losing $30,000 to $40,000 a month since taking over the center.

The facility’s previous operator, Gibraltar Savings, had been losing about $100,000 a month, he said.

The chef school being planned, to be known as the Los Angeles Culinary Institute and run by former Century Plaza Hotel executive chef Raimund Hofmeister, would charge its students $13,500 tuition for 18 months of instruction and would provide a financial boost for the equestrian center.

Tim Behunin, one of the principals of LAEC, told the committee that profits from the school and restaurant would be channeled back into much-needed renovations at the center.